Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Apparently Stefan got dressed in the dark this morning because he was wearing two different shoes. As it turned out pretty much no one even noticed. I didn't know about it until he stopped by and told us. Luckily, the shoes were somewhat similar so it wasn't too bad. Classic.

Heather and I were both craving bagels yesterday morning and we were somewhat disappointed to realize that it was the last Monday of the month, which meant that we got donuts instead of bagels. Don't get me wrong, I love a good donut too, but I was just craving a bagel with cream cheese like crazy. So when Heather asked me to take her to pick up her car from the mechanic she offered to treat me to a bagel for lunch and I couldn't pass her up on that offer now could I? Here is my delicious bagel - everything bagel toasted with scallion cream cheese. Talk about bad breath, but I didn't care at all. Haha.

Chad and I went to see Eric Himan on Sunday at the World Cafe Live. Eric is so awesome. You should check out his music at his myspace page. I know this isn't the best photo in the world, but it was the best I could do given the low lighting situation.

Chad and I decided to rearrange the furniture in our upstairs TV/game room on Saturday. It's always fun to change a room around because it feels like a brand new space! We haven't finished cleaning up yet but I think I prefer the new layout so far. Hopefully we'll get around to painting this room sometime soon.

So this picture probably doesn't seem to have anything to do with Black Friday. But ... well it doesn't really. Haha. Actually, this was taken in the Best Buy parking lot. I thought the leaves on these shrubs just looked awesome and I had to take a photo. Chad and I got up a little after 5 AM and went shopping at Target, Staples, Best Buy, Circuit City, Michaels, Office Depot, Barnes and Noble, and Brave New Worlds. I know we shouldn't succumb to the consumerism of the holiday season but we just can't help it. It was a tiring but fun day.

Isn't this a lovely photo? Are you wondering what it is? It is our Thanksgiving turkey! Actually, it was just a turkey breast this year. And I say "just" in a very sarcastic way because the turkey breast was HUGE! I was expecting something much smaller, but it was basically a whole turkey with the legs and wings cut off. Craziness. It was tasty though!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tonight is the night before Thanksgiving and my mom decided to make a fancy pumpkin pie. She cut out some leaf shapes from leftover crust and put them on the pie. Aren't they cute? Can't wait for tomorrow and all the gluttony.

If you shop at a typical grocery store you've probably encountered the free turkey deal around Thanksgiving time. If you spend a certain amount of money within a specified time period and use your member's card, then you get a coupon for a free turkey. Chad and I got to that amount last Sunday and got our coupon. I went on Tuesday to get the turkey and there were a ton of people at the store (surprise surprise). I meant to get just a turkey breast but they didn't have any left so I grabbed the smallest turkey I could find (10.89 lbs) hoping it would fit in my freezer. As you can see, it was a success!

Winter brings many joys. One of them is chapped lips. Oh wait, that's not really a joy is it? Well anyway, during the lovely winter months when my lips dry out I couldn't live without chapstick. This is the one I keep by my bed all the time. I will use any kind at all as long as it keeps my lips from feeling chapped.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Chad and I used to love getting breakfast pizza at the dining hall when we were in college. So this morning we attempted to resurrect that dining hall delicacy. We used a refrigerated pizza crust, some eggs, bacon and cheese. It turned out really well actually. We even added a little salsa. Not sure why but it was a good way to start the day!

When Chad and I got new cell phones, we both bought these cases for them. They are nice because they have a magnetic closing mechanism so there is no velcro, or clasp or anything like that. It makes them very easy to open quickly, yet they stay shut quite well. I sometimes where mine in my pocket using this clip on the back. Recently I noticed that the metal piece of the clip had started to stick out through the leather. It's a pain because it gets caught as I try to attach it.

Chad went to see a doctor a few weeks ago just to have a general checkup and because he had some kind of rash on his fingers. Apparently he used to get it every winter. It turned out to be a mild form of eczema. The doctor prescribed a cream for it but also recommended that Chad use a humidifier at home to help keep his skin from getting too dry. So we went out to Bed Bath and Beyond on Friday (gotta use those coupons!!) and got this awesome humidifier. Now, we could have gotten some plain one, but we decided to go for the one for little kids. It's just so adorable isn't it? I mean, it must be because it says so on the box! Check it out! We love it.

On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at the office. This is an office tradition where Golder provides turkey, ham, and a pasta dish and everyone brings side dishes, appetizers, desserts, drinks, etc. This year we had an incredible amount of food. In anticipation of the huge amount of food, the organizers very cleverly moved the feast up from Friday to Thursday so we could enjoy leftovers for lunch on Friday - and did we ever! This is a photo of the dish that Paddy brought. It was an Indian chicken curry and he made this little cheat sheet showing all the spices he used so everyone could see what was in them. It was a nice touch.

On Wednesday night we took a client out to dinner at La Campagne in Cherry Hill. The meal was excellent and I especially enjoyed my dessert. I had the Creme Brulee trio, which consisted of three flavors - black cherry, vanilla, and chocolate. I tasted each first, then ate them in order of least favorite to most favorite. Can anyone guess the order? Incidentally, Heather and Steve both ate them in the exact same order.

Oh how cute! It's a small tree growing in our backyard and its leaves turned a very nice maroon color. Only problem is that it is about 6 INCHES away from the house!!! It's going to have to be pulled out, but it was nice while it lasted.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Chad and I decided to have a very simple dinner tonight. So Chad made tuna melts. We haven't had them in a long time although we used to have them pretty regularly. We got chipotle cheddar cheese which was pretty good. It had a smoky taste. The only thing missing was some lettuce but it's such a waste to buy a head of lettuce just for this.

Last year our furnace didn't work when we first tried to turn it on for the winter. It turned out the pilot light wouldn't stay lit because the thermocouple was bad. So we had that replaced and all was peachy. The pilot stayed lit all through the year and when it got cold out again the heat kicked on. Then one day we realized it felt colder than it should in the guinea pigs' room, so Chad checked on the furnace and found that the pilot light had gone out again. He tried numerous times to relight it and it wouldn't stay lit. I had a feeling it was the thermocouple again, but it shouldn't need to be replaced within a year right? So we tried calling out the people who did it last time. Atlas Heating and Plumbing company of Glenside, PA (DON'T EVER USE THEM). They were completely unhelpful and kept stringing me along saying they could come out the next day, then never calling back. So I eventually told them to forget it and we called our parents' heating group. They came out the next day (Friday) and took care of the problem. It was the thermocouple as we expected but they couldn't say why it stopped working after just one year. I'm blaming the other company, so don't use them! Plus they were quite rude to me.

Oh...my...god... Have you ever had Ferrero Rocher? They are heaven on earth. They have a wonderful outer crust of chocolate and nuts on top of a wafer. Inside is a creamy chocolate center with a hazelnut in the middle. Well, we recently saw this package of them that included a coconut variety and a DARK CHOCOLATE variety. Chad went for the coconut and I had most of the dark chocolate ones. They are amazing! If you haven't had them, you must pick some up. They are all over the place now.

This is what I came home to on Friday. Chad ordered these humongous remote controls from woot.com. They sell just one item every day, usually at a good price and shipping is always $5 no matter what you buy. Anyway, he thought that this remote might work well for his grandmother since it has large keys and is easy to hold. Well, hopefully you can tell from the picture how huge they are. I just started laughing when I saw them. At least they were pretty cheap. I hope she likes them.

We were fortunate enough to get to go to a Stargazer Lily concert on Thursday night. They are my favorite band ever and I used to see them all the time. Some say I've been to over 100 SL concerts, but I lost count a long time ago. Well, they split up a while ago and it's been quite sad. They have had a few reunion shows but it's just not the same. They said at this show that they might be semi-getting back together which would be fabulous. We saw them at the Tin Angel, which is a tiny venue. My flash is quite bright, but we were too far from the stage. Oh well. It was a great show.

I thought Chad's camera looked really lonely just sitting on our bed the other day. Not sure why. He hasn't been using it much lately, other than for taking pictures of yarn and knitting projects ... don't ask.

(Note: This is my photo for Wednesday, November 7th, 2007. Yes, I know it's been forever since I posted!)

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Chad and I saw these awesome speakers a few weeks ago and kind of fell in love with them. It just so happens that we had been having problems with my stereo (from Japan!) that we were using downstairs and were in the market for something new. So I started looking up information on these and everything I found said that they are pretty good. I also found them online for about 2/3 the price we originally saw (which is quite a bit lower). So we decided to get them as an anniversary present to ourselves. Can you believe that as of tomorrow we will have been together for 5 years?! The speakers have one audio-in jack and we can hook up an iPod, or the stereo which has the CD player, MD player, and radio.

The weather has finally gotten cooler out so I was able to break out my winter slippers for walking around the house in. They look kind of like grandpa slippers don't they? I don't care because they are comfy and keep my feet warm!

On Sunday I took a break from working and Chad and I had brunch at some friends' house. While the bacon was cooking, the house quickly filled with smoke. I took a photo and was surprised to find the smoke show up so clearly! They opened the windows and the smoke cleared pretty quickly. Their house is beautiful and brunch was great (lots of food!).

On Saturday I pretty much worked all day, other than a couple short breaks here and there. I actually had a pretty good setup in the library. I stole the monitor from our desktop computer so I could get more screen space like I have at the office. It worked quite well and made me much more efficient.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Oh ... my ... god. Is this not the most awesomest photo ever? This is Golder's very own Dr. Ramesh Venkatakrishnan. He borrowed this fantastic wig from Ron (it was part of a Halloween costume ...). I think it looks just perfect on Ramesh!

I have so many things I want to back up onto CDs or DVDs that I decided to try some Double Layer DVDs. These can each hold 8.5GB of data! I tried something with one of them but it didn't work so I'll have to try again ...

I hope you guys don't mind, but I'm going to post 2 photos for Halloween. The first is a photo of our neighbors' curly willow tree. Actually, it's the remains of the tree after they had it cut down. The tree was getting too big for the space and was threatening some power lines, so Deb had some people come give estimates. One guy stopped by because he was in the area and he gave her a really good deal if he could do it immediately, so she jumped at the chance. It's sad because it was an awesome tree.

My second photo is of my mom's awesome jack-o-lantern. Can you tell what it is?